Deputy Attorney General Rosenstein meets with lawmakers

Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein met with Senate lawmakers Thursday shortly after a Senate hearing in which Acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe was questioned about the firing of former Director James Comey.

Rosenstein, who recommended Comey’s firing in a letter to President Trump Tuesday, had a private meeting with Sens. Richard Burr, R-N.C. and Mark Warner, D-Va., as the Senate Intelligence Committee hearing was coming to its conclusion. Both men are on the committee and caused a stir when they abruptly left the hearing.

However, Burr and Warner said after the meeting that Comey’s firing wasn’t discussed. Instead they said the meeting was about how best to examine Russian activities during the presidential election without hindering a parallel FBI probe.

The low-profile Rosenstein was thrust onto the national stage with a single memo, a three-page May 9 document castigating Comey over his handling of the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s secret email server. That memo was cited by the Trump administration as the primary basis for firing Comey on Tuesday evening.

The meeting between Rosenstein and the lawmakers comes after The Washington Post reported Wednesday night that the newly confirmed deputy AG threatened to resign after reports began painting him as the primary “mover of the decision” to sack Comey.

Rosenstein later told reporters he did not threaten to quit and did not intend to quit his post.